Sarah Prineas's The Magic Thief has been stealing attention from all sides long before it was published, and all it took was a little bit of stalking pestering persuasion to snag an interview with her.
SARAH PRINEAS: I should maybe start with a caveat that The Magic Thief is not, in fact, an urban fantasy. Well, it's a fantasy and it's set in a city, but it's not set in the contemporary, hip, supernatural, werewolves and faeries world, but in a completely secondary fantasy world. And it's not sexy. Nonono. Not even rooooomance. It's for readers ages 10 and up. Excelsior!
1. I know you came late to writing (because I have my ninja spies. Who can Google). Tell us about how you started to write, and why you chose fantasy?
SARAH PRINEAS: The situation: Tiny baby, just two months old. His crazed mother, trying to write a dissertation. Germany. A sad lack of German. Hours and hours of Austen-like "desperate walking." A lot of Terry Pratchett novels. Bridget Jones's Diary.
Writing fantasy was the only option, really. I did finish the dissertation, eventually, but had a whole lot more fun with the fantasy. My first story was about a professor of magic besieged by the homunculi in his back garden, told in diary entries.
2. The main characters of the MAGIC THIEF are Nevery, a magician, and Conn, former thief turned apprentice. Dashing thieves in fantastical situations have a long and nefariously splendid history - how did you approach Conn's profession?
SARAH PRINEAS: I looked up pick-pocketing online to learn the best techniques, and found amazing and useful information about how to pick a lock by students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. These scientists get up to no good, evidently.
3. What or who were your early influences? How did that lead you to urban fantasy?
SARAH PRINEAS: This is an odd mix. Dickens for the urban--for the details and the grittiness, and the winding, foggy, cobbled London streets, and the river Thames (from Our Mutual Friend). Laura Ingalls Wilder--for the details and the FOOD. Seriously, have you read Farmer Boy lately? The main thing they do in that book is eat. And for the sheer sensawunda, J.R.R. Tolkien, which is probably as far from urban fantasy as you can get and still be fantasy.
4. The city of Wellmet, which is running out of magic in possibly the same way we all worry about running out of oil, is obviously an important character in the book. I love the way your map has warehouses in it - how did you come up with the city? Did you start by drawing a map?
SARAH PRINEAS: The city of Wellmet arose sort-of organically as I wrote the novel, just as the characters evolved, and as the plot did, too. As the book went into production my editor asked me for a map, so I had to draw one, and it helped me actually "see" the city in its entirety for the first time--and to think about things like warehouses, and drains, and a pumphouse, and public architecture. I highly recommend map making.
5. Favourite line from your book. Go on, piiick one.
SARAH PRINEAS: Yargh! Okay, here:
Within the tank, the magic stilled, shifted, and focused itself on my locus magicalicus, on me. It was like looking up at a night sky full of stars and having the stars suddenly look back.
6. Tell us a secret about one of your characters. I hear with interest that there's a handsome young magician's secretary around the place. If he occasionally answers the magician's mail commando, I feel I - I mean, your public - have a right to know.
SARAH PRINEAS: Ummm, I'm afraid you're misinformed. The wizard's secretary is a rat. Not literally a rat. At least not in this book. A secret. Well, nobody's wondered what bodyguard Benet has been up to in Wellmet while Nevery's been in exile. He had to work for somebody, right? He may know more about Underlord Crowe than he's telling. Also, Rowan cuts her own hair.
7. If you could be one of the characters in your book for one day, who would it be?
SARAH PRINEAS: Rowan, for sure. She's a swordfighting, butt-kicking teenager with red hair!
8. As a cunning followup to the last question, if you could have a torrid night of passion with one of your characters, who would it be?
SARAH PRINEAS: Ow! It's not that kind of book. Get me some soap; I have to wash out my brain now...
9. What book have you enjoyed reading most in the last year?
SARAH PRINEAS: Just one? Probably The Dairy Queen by Catherine Murdock, with Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian a close second.
10. There are going to be at least two more Conn and Nevery books (and you're already on the third, which I know because of those ninjas, of course). Any other plans for Wellmet? Time for something completely different?
SARAH PRINEAS: Your ninjas are amazing! Yes, I'm keen to write at least one more Conn and Nevery book, but I've got some other plans bubbling away on the back burner, just in case. Depends on the vagaries of publishing.
I bet Sarah Prineas will be fine despite any and all vagaries in publishing. The Magic Thief is out now and available in a store near you!